NEGATIVE SPACE

Negative space. Now that is a stupid art term. What does that really mean?  I don’t think anyone really knows.

Negative space is just a cultural artifact that those who are aesthetically woke, accept as gospel.  Most art guides will tell you that in Representational Spacetime, positive space is the figure, and negative space is what is called the background.  Many guides to painting talk about illusion, and that the spaces can be perceived differently, and that they can even flip back and forth.  So, in essence, it is a visual trick, a visual ploy, which is used to add interest to paintings.  And it is fake interest.  

The two words are, first of all, inherently contradictory.  Let’s start with the word space. In Representational Spacetime, space refers to a shape on the flat canvas. It’s not talking about three-dimensional space, or even the ideal mental conception of space.  The lexicon is confusing.

And then there’s the word negative. Negative is so, well, negative. It’s an anti-word. It’s an anti-element word. When when you put them together, you get, what else, another dichotomy.  It becomes a means to trick the eye.  The visual effect is confusing. 

Isn’t it great that here in the world of TRANSPARENT DRAWING, negative space does not exist? We don’t use negative space when we knowledge holistic form.   That would be almost like matter and antimatter. Or form and anti form.  How about Negative Form?  No, thank you, to any of that.  We have no interest in trick forms. We focus on positive, morality upright, holistic form.   

It’s always amazing to me how much we accept the system that is artspeak.  We are fed this by the aesthetically woke.  We are told what is good, and what is bad.  We are not allowed to even question artistic tropes like this, or any of the others.  And they are being constantly reinforced by the gatekeepers of art all the time.

You know the answer.  Draw transparently.  Get your head out of negative space.  Generate previously unimaginable holistic forms.

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There is no negative space in my drawing above. There is nothing negative about the resolution of holistic form. I’m not fine tuning my blobs of opaque paint so that it might trick your eye. Instead, form is generated. It is positive. It is good.